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February already! And with February comes the next supporter giveaway. This month, with great thanks once again to www.thestorygift.co.uk , we have a brilliantly bookish set of 'storyteller' pencils (featuring famous first lines) and a retro library card notebook!
As always, you'll be automatically entered into the giveaway if you support the forum on patreon, or if your pre-patreon membership is still active. If you want to be involved in the giveaway but don't currently support, you can join the patreon at any point in February here: www.patreon.com/bookclubforum .

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This year, I'm not going to set myself any reading goal (last year's was 30 books). In fact, I've deleting Good Reads because I was reading books for the sake of hitting a score, rather than actually savouring them.

Instead, I want to focus more on re-reading books and also reading books that are chunky, mostly consisting of 600+ pages. So, by the end of this year, I won't have read a large number of books, but hopefully, a large amount of pages. That's why my TRB lists are divided into the new books I have on my shelves and the ones that I would like to re-read this year.

I'm looking forward to seeing what books this year will bring!

I'm actually starting 2019 with a relatively short book, which is 184 pages, 'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks. This looks a bit dark!

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I've just finished 'The Wasp Factory' by Iain Banks and all I can say is wow!

This story is told by Frank, a 16 year old boy, who lives on a remote island in Scotland with his father. This is about Frank, his very dysfunctional family and trying to find his brother, who has escaped from a mental institution.

What I love about this book is the way in which Iain Banks writes characters. Frank is such a complex character that, although in essence he is an evil person, there are flashes of innocence and sensitivity about him, that you can't help but like him. One moment you feel like he is the only reasoable memeber of his family and then gradually, you realize his true character. Despite that, you feel sorry for Frank and the life that he has grown up in and the next, completely horrified by some of the things he does in the novel. He's not just a bad character, which in turn, makes him all the more believable.

I also liked some of the dark humour in this novel. Some of the more disturbing stories of Frank's family history were told in such a way, as to make them funny. I felt guilty for laughing at times, but I couldn't help it!

Away from the story itself, I liked how the novel comments on human nature's need for power and to overpower others. This idea is relevant in the areas of gender, politics and society.

This novel isn't story driven, but character driven, so the story was a bit slow at times. However, I was not expecting the twist at the end.

This might not be for everyone, because it is so dark and at times, really intense. However, I thought this was a brilliant first read for 2019.

I would give this 5 starts, but I have to knock a point off, because this book dragged a couple of times.

Glad you enjoyed The Wasp Factory - I agree with your comments, I thought it was a very clever commentary on human nature. Looking back, I also find it incredible how Banks was able to create such dark scenes through such simple writing. He really had the reader captivated with his character arc and writing.

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Hi everyone! I've been absent from the board for a while, because I went on holiday to celebrate my birthday. So, I thought I would post an update on how I'm getting on with 'The Passage' bv Justin Cronin.

Even though I read this book year ago, on this re-read I only really vaguely remembered what happened in this, so it's like reading a new book. I'm really enjoying this so far, I'm about 514 pages into it and haven't noticed how huge this it, it's so easy it get into the story and very well written.

It does have similarities to 'The Stand' by Stephen King, but that's no bad thing, because it's one of my favourite books.

This book was recommended to me by a friend who has read all of the books in the series and this, is the first. I thought because I had watched the film version of this novel, that I knew what the story was going to be about, but the book is very different from the adaptation.

At first, I found this extremely difficult to get into. After about 100 pages I actually put this book down, because I found the maritime vocabulary, impossible to follow. However, after discussing the book on this board, I decided to pick it back up again and actually, when the character Stephen Maturin, the ship's doctor, comes into the story, I found that, because he was a novice with ships, he was asking questions about the different mechanisms etc of the ship and that helped me to feel that I had some idea of what it was all about.

I also found some of the battle scene a little bit static and difficult to visualize.

Even though this was a challenging book, I really like the relationship between Stephen and Jack Aubrey, the ship's captain. The writing was very humorous at times and I also liked how some of this book featured places in the Mediterranean that I'm really familiar with.

Being the first in the series, I'm sure as the novels progress, I might find this easier to get into. I won't be rushing out to read any more at the moment, I think you need to be in the right mood to read them. However, I may read more of this series in the future.

My Rating ***

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I initially read this book in about 2000, so when I decided to re-read it, I couldn't remember much about it. I'm glad I had left it for so long before I read it again, as I was surprised how good this was.

The writing is very good, it reminded me very much of 'The Stand' by Stephen King, because of the dark writing, the way in which it builds up in suspense and also plot subject. However, I wouldn't say that this was a copy of 'The Stand', it has it's own identity too.

The characters are very believable and complex. I also really liked the fact that the characters weren't simply 'Bad' or 'Good'. All of the characters had different sides to them, which made them all the more believable. One criticism I would make, would be that I did find that the more central characters were better developed than the secondary ones. Actually, in the second section of the novel, I felt that there were too many characters to keep track of. However, as the novel progressed, it became clear which characters I should be paying more attention to. I was also happy that

Spoiler

the vampires were not your stereotypical blood sucking beings allergic to garlic, that could be killed by stakes and crosses. I was also really glad that they were not the romantic, shiny vampires either. I really liked the fact Justin Cronin hadn't written them as just 'bad' either. There was a sensitivity, which made you as a reader, actually feel sorry for these beings.

The pace of the the novel was generally good. I found the first section of the book to be gripping. In fact, I found it very difficult to put the book down. During the second section of the book however, it kind of ground to a halt and I didn't enjoy reading that part as much as the others. However on reflection, I think that the slow build in tension, to the next exciting bit was very clever, because I don't think I would have been able to cope with a fast paced book of 900 plus pages!

Being 900 pages I thought that by the time I was getting to the end,I would be desperate to finish and start something new.. However with this book, I was actually sad when I had finished it. Even though this is a long book, I didn't notice how chunky this book was and I was able to really get into the world that Justin Cronin had created.

I really liked this book and I'm looking forward to reading the next installment!

My Rating **** 1/2

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Great reviews! I'm glad you enjoyed your re-read of The Passage . I've added the trilogy to my wishlist (though it's a shame they don't all seem to be available in the same size and with the same cover, from the Dutch webshop. Just with the TV-tie in cover, and I want the normal one. May have to shop around on different sites).

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Great reviews! I'm glad you enjoyed your re-read of The Passage . I've added the trilogy to my wishlist (though it's a shame they don't all seem to be available in the same size and with the same cover, from the Dutch webshop. Just with the TV-tie in cover, and I want the normal one. May have to shop around on different sites).

Thank you! Yes I think now they will be selling the TV tie in covers because of the programme. I got my version from a charity shop, so the cover is different. I hope you enjoy reading it!